The invention relates to an apparatus for loading and unloading an aircraft, whereby known loading and unloading equipment is used for transporting the load items and for lashing down such load items on the loading floor of the aircraft. More specifically, the present invention relates to an improvement of my previous invention disclosed in the above mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,225,926 describing an apparatus which makes it possible to exactly determine the total weight of the aircraft as well as any intermediate load addition items that may have been added when an aircraft touches down at several airports to take on or discharge freight items, passengers, and baggage.
It is also known to employ a digital computer combined with weighing equipment provided with weight sensors delivering an electrical output signal. Such computers are mainly used for calculating the optimal center of gravity of the aircraft for the purpose of reducing the trim resistance. U.S. Pat. No. 3,746,844 is representative of this prior art.
However, it is still necessary to rely on a loading and trim schedule which is prepared on the ground as a preliminary to any loading and trimming operations. Data are then supplied to the computer in accordance with such schedule for ascertaining the optimal loading arrangement and for also taking into account the individual load data which are not subjected to any load additions such as the empty weight of the aircraft, the weight of the fuel, and so forth. This operation requires additional personnel for filling out these schedules for each new loading. Such operation also requires the manual input of the data into the airborne computer and control unit.